Two convicted of selling $6 million in counterfeit Rockwell software on eBay

Two convicted of selling $6 million in counterfeit Rockwell software on eBay

Milwaukee, Wis. – Two more men have pleaded guilty in Milwaukee to charges of criminal copyright infringement as a result of their selling nearly $6 million in counterfeit Rockwell Automation computer software on eBay.
Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher for the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced that Robert Koster of Jonesboro, Ark. pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmueller, and Yutaka Yamamoto of Pico Rivera, Calif., pleaded guilty to selling the software in online auctions before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman.
Each defendant faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release.
The defendants will be sentenced before Judge Stadtmueller in November 2007, along with four additional defendants who previously pleaded guilty in Milwaukee.
Rockwell Automation is a global provider of automation, power, control, and information solutions. One of its products is factory management software, and the price of the majority of Rockwell software applications sold by the two defendants ranged from $900 to $11,300.
Koster admitted that from Sept. 4, 2003 to Sept. 14, 2004, he started 105 or more separate online auctions in which he sold copies of Rockwell Automation software valued at more than $5 million. His personal profit from these transactions exceeded $23,000.
Yamamoto confessed to initiating 92 or more separate online auctions in which he sold Rockwell Automation software valued at approximately $543,000. His personal profit was more than $6,000.
Their pleas bring to nine the total number of felony convictions in the Rockwell case. In addition to six pleas in Wisconsin, there have been two convictions in the Eastern District of Michigan and another in the Southern District of Indiana.
The combined retail value of the counterfeit software in all nine prosecutions is approximately $30 million.
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